Marketing Your Arts & Crafts: Creative Ways to Profit from Your Work - Hardcover

In preparing this directory of marketing opportunities, West drew on her 20 years of experience as a working craftsperson. She targets potential markets ranging from such familiar options as coop gallery, holiday boutique, and craft mall sales to other possibilities the artist/artisan may not have considered, such as selling to hotel gift shops, placing art works in embassies around the world, and utilizing slide registries. The directory pinpoints some 50 specific target markets, including for each indepth information on types of products that sell in that particular market, costs to the artist/artisan, a description of the market, and a list of names and places to call for additional information. Interspersed with information on specific markets are useful discussions on such general marketing topics as working on commission, consignment selling, and product packaging. An excellent source for libraries where demand warrants.
Janice Zlendich, California State Univ. Lib., Fullerton
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

What at first seems like yet another directory is, quite surprisingly, a treasure of information. From selling stuff to the use of holiday season boutiques to marketing topflight works to the advantages of major corporate art curators, West has done her homework well. Each of the 50 entries includes products that buyers want, costs to consider, people to contact, and questions to ask, as well as pithy paragraphs culled for the most part from interviews with potential buyers. A few categories provide some unrealistic prices (a brochure for $100?) and some simplistic advice (the notes on publicity, for instance). Nonetheless, coupled with special sections on such topics as commissioned work and selling on consignment, the data gathered here make this more than just another series of listings. Barbara Jacobs